


Magic

by r0ck_y0ur_s0ul



Category: Hunger Games Series - All Media Types
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-12-17
Updated: 2013-12-17
Packaged: 2018-01-04 22:35:17
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,665
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1086450
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/r0ck_y0ur_s0ul/pseuds/r0ck_y0ur_s0ul
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Peeta asks Katniss to read a story and then asks her to believe.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Magic

She could practically feel his blue eyes burning a hole into the side of her head as she attempted to focus on the book she held out before her. Stifling a smile she caught his hopeful gaze for a just a moment as she flipped from one page to the next, the tips of her fingers slipping across the glossy pages easily. He’d practically shoved the book into her hands when he’d returned home from the bakery for the day. Her insistence that they finish making dinner before settling in for the night to read the book had made him pout for the rest of the evening. When they’d finally settled into bed, and he’d forced the book into her hands once again, she realized just how important its contents must have been.

The book hadn’t been what she was expecting, at all. The arrival of December had set all of District 12 ablaze with talks of Christmas. Snowmen, candy canes, and stockings seemed to be all that anyone could talk about. Peeta, however, had remained relatively quiet on the topic. He knew that she wasn’t much for over the top celebration or rituals of days gone by. The fall of the Capitol had lead to the return of many old, long forgotten, traditions that had one time been hidden away. Winter months were no longer a struggle to keep a family clothed and fed but a time for twinkly lights and gingerbread cookies. And as she’d flipped through the pages of the book slowly, taking in the words, she realized that her husband had been swept up in the merriments just as many in the District had.

“What do you think?” the excitement in his voice was obvious and as she looked up from the book, taking in the sight of him sitting in the middle of their bed with his legs crossed, she couldn’t help but laugh lightly.

“What’s a sugar-plum?” she inquired as she held the open book to her chest. He shrugged his shoulders before leaning forward and kissing her on the mouth gently.

“Keep reading,” he instructed as he pulled back, supporting his weight on her bent legs. “Out loud.”

“Peeta…” she began to protest but was silenced by his lips once more, his left hand brushing across her stomach as he kissed her.

“Please?” he muttered as they parted once more. She pressed her lips together and let out as indignant of a sigh as she could muster in spite of her lack of annoyance before holding the book out before her once more.

“The moon on the breast of the new-fallen snow gave the luster of mid-day to objects below,” she recited before catching his gaze for a brief moment. “When, what to my wondering eyes should appear, but a miniature sleight and eight…tiny reindeer?”

“Keep going,” he encouraged with a laugh as she flipped the book toward him and pointed to the illustrations on the page.

“The deer are flying,” she declared skeptically.

“Yup,” he nodded as he placed his hands under her knees and pulled gently, separating her from the headboard she’d been propped up against, and forcing her onto her back.

“Deer don’t fly,” she stated factually as she stared up at the ceiling. “And there’s also a scary fat guy in a flying sled.”

“It’s a sleigh,” Peeta corrected, his face floating above her. “And that scary fat guy is Santa, Katniss.”

“Santa isn’t real,” she reminded.

“Maybe he can be,” he suggested gently, his voice barely loud enough to be heard.

“Have you been drinking with Haymitch?” she inquired lightheartedly as she reached up and ran her fingers through his soft blonde locks.

“Well, maybe he could,” he commented, catching her gaze before continuing. “If we believed in magic.”

“Peeta, magic…” her voice trailed off as his face disappeared and she was left staring at the ceiling once more. “Where did you get this book?”

“Delly,” he responded as he pushed the material of her nightshirt up, exposing her stomach to him. “She read it to the boys and they loved it.”

“Oh?” she questioned clearing her throat as her own hand splayed across her stomach, protecting it from her husbands adoring gaze. She couldn’t bring herself to look down at him. Even after all that they’d been through she still felt overwhelmed by the love reflected in his eyes when he looked at her. That was truer now than ever before. It made her feel too vulnerable, too treasured, and too safe all at once. That stare made her more aware of all that she had to lose.

“Katniss, please let me see,” he whispered.

“Peeta, I…” her voice faltered she felt his hands come to rest on top of her own. I’m scared, her brain screamed loudly.

“I know,” he replied gently as if he could read her mind. “I’m scared, too. But…please.”

She nodded wordlessly as she moved her hand, immediately balling her fingers into a fist in an effort to hide how much she was shaking. The warmth of his palm pressed into her skin and she could feel that his own fingers were trembling. Up until this point she’d not let him touch her stomach for this long without forcing his hands away and she felt incredibly guilty. But any lingering presence of his hands on her stomach made it all too…real.

“I want our baby to believe in magic,” her eyes widened at his confession and when she felt his lips brush against her stomach she finally lifted her head to look down at him.

“Peeta…”

“Because she’s magic,” he declared softly as he looked up at his wife.

“She?” Katniss choked out as she propped herself up on her elbows so she could continue to stare down at her husband.

“Or he,” he added, the corners of his mouth turning up to form a smile.

“You think our baby is magic?” she inquired as she attempted to blink away the moisture building in her eyes. She still didn’t think it was entirely fair that in addition to the many physical changes she’d been forced to deal with that she had to endure the emotional changes as well. As her belly grew larger so did her emotional sensitivity, it seemed. It was like she was actually free to feel for the first time in a long time and it terrified her.

“Of course,” he answered easily, his smile widening as he cupped her stomach in both of his hands. “After everything we’ve been through. I never really thought we’d get here…”

“I’m sorry I made you wait so long,” she interjected quickly.

“No,” he shook his head back and forth before shrugging his shoulders. “Not that. I just never thought I’d be alive long enough for something like this to happen.”

“Me either,” she admitted with a sigh as he climbed up the length of her body and came to rest beside her. “It’s pretty scary,” she whispered as he cupped her face in his left hand, his thumb stroking her cheek.

“That’s why I brought the book home,” he stated. “I don’t want her to be afraid like we were, like we are. I want her to see the good, the magic in everything.”

“The world isn’t always good,” she reminded him apologetically, feeling as if she was betraying her own desire to be better about seeing the good in every single day.

“But the world now is so different from the world we grew up in,” he reasoned. “We had to be aware of the scary things when we were young. We were reminded of the awful things all of the time. That was our world, but I don’t want it to be hers. I want her world to be everything ours couldn’t be because of our circumstance. She will never be cold, or starving, or worry about her name being plucked out of some bowl and being sent away to die. I want her world to be warm and full of love. I want her world to be a place where reindeer can fly and Santa brings presents to leave under a tree. I want her world to be a world where magic exists and it’s an even greater magic because her Mom and Dad believe it’s real, too.”

“Him,” she commented weakly as her fingers toyed with the material of his shirt. “You keep saying ‘her’.”

“Or him,” he added with a nod.

“They will find out about us,” she muttered sadly as he tilted her head back slightly and pressed a kiss to her forehead. “Who we are, what we did, what we had to do. We can’t protect them from that forever.”

“I know,” he agreed as he let out a heavy breath. “I just want to keep her innocent…”

“…Or him.”

“…For as long as we can,” he finished, his hand falling to her stomach once more. “And I want to see her eyes light up when we read her this story about Santa.”

“You really think it’s a girl?” she questioned curiously as one of her owns hands joined his. When he smiled and nodded his head in response she looked down at her stomach and let out an amazed breath. “Why do you think that?”

“When I dream about you and our baby, our baby is always a girl,” he explained softly before cupping her face in his palms and pressing his mouth to hers. Gently biting at her upper lip he smiled into the kiss when her mouth fell open and granted his tongue access. He would never get enough of kissing her. He wanted to do it every day, for forever if possible. Every kiss they shared renewed him, made him whole, made him alive and as he pulled back slowly she offered him a gentle smile before reaching for the once discarded book.

“Well, that sounds like a magic worth believing in.”


End file.
